


All anybody ever really needs

by WolfAndHound_Archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Friendship, Marauders' Era, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 13:37:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5930362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfAndHound_Archivist/pseuds/WolfAndHound_Archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poppy Pomfrey observes two young lovers on a moonlit night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All anybody ever really needs

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Lassenia, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Wolf and Hound](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Wolf_and_Hound), which was created to make stories posted to the Sirius_Black_and_Remus_Lupin Yahoo! mailing list easier to find. However, even though I still love the fandom, I am no longer active in it and do not have the time to maintain it. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in December 2015. I posted an announcement with Open Doors, but we may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on the [Wolf and Hound collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/wolfandhound/profile).

Poppy Pomfrey sighed as she sat down in her office in the Hospital Wing of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was the night of the full moon and she had just returned from escorting Remus Lupin down to the Whomping Willow. 

She sighed again as she tried to imagine the excruciating pain he must be in at this moment. She had to admit she had been more than a little surprised when, six years previously, she had heard that Remus would be attending Hogwarts under Albus Dumbledore’s supervision. 

Admittedly she thought Remus very brave to be attending a school around children his age given his condition. But Remus had found a group of friends that he trusted and Poppy was silently relieved. She couldn’t imagine what he would have to go through if he had had to do it without the support system he had.

Poppy didn’t see how Remus could have kept his condition from his dorm mates, James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, and so was silently relieved that they accepted him for who he was and supported him around the time of the full moon. The three other boys would always come and visit him in the Hospital Wing the day after the full moon and she saw that their mere presence helped to raise Remus’s spirits. 

She chuckled to herself as she thought of young Sirius Black and how his company seemed to make more of a difference to Remus than the other two boys. She had often wondered about the nature of their friendship and as she got up, she resolved to investigate the true nature of her patient’s relationships. After all, if she was going to accommodate him every month she might as well find out more about him. 

****

As the clock struck midnight the following night, Poppy glanced up and saw, as per usual, the door of the hospital wing silently open and close on its own accord. Remus was sitting up in bed at this point and was waiting for the familiar figure of Sirius Black to materialize out of nowhere. Poppy was used to these monthly visits by now as Sirius had been visiting the Hospital Wing at midnight every night after the full moon for a couple of years. She often wondered how Sirius got around without being seen but always decided to not raise questions as she knew how much these monthly visits meant to Remus. 

She saw him smile weakly as Sirius walked towards him and clambered onto the edge of the bed beside Remus. 

Quietly, she got up and walked towards her office door so she could better hear the whispered conversation. She had charmed her office to pick up sounds coming from the Hospital Wing more easily so she would be alerted quickly if any of her patients went into distress and needed assistance and so it was as if the conversation between the two boys was taking place right beside her. She then sat down on a chair to watch and listen.

“Moony,” came the quiet, sing song voice of Sirius Black.

“Padfoot,” replied Remus Lupin, sounding exhausted yet excited and relieved, “you’re here.”

“Of course I’m here,” Sirius said in surprise. “I always come don’t I?”

“You do,” Remus agreed, “But sometimes I wonder if it ever becomes too much for you. I mean, you need to sleep as much as I do.”

Sirius dismissed this with a wave of his hand. “I was awake anyway and we might as well spend the time together. Besides, I enjoy coming to visit you. It’s different to when I visit with James and Peter. And it’s never going to get too much. Visiting you now is even better than the actual night of the full moon.” 

At this Sirius gave a low chuckle and winked at Remus while the latter just rolled his eyes in amusement.

“How are James and Peter by the way?” Remus asked casually, absentmindedly trailing his fingers over Sirius’ arm. “I didn’t really get a chance to see them today and last night was a hard run.”

Poppy was puzzled by this. What did Remus mean by a “hard run”? As far as she knew, Remus stayed inside the Shrieking Shack on the night of the full moon, for his own safety and for the safety of the people around him. She shifted slightly in her seat and continued to listen.

Sirius, it seemed, didn’t seem to mind Remus’ show of affection. “They are both good,” he replied before he started laughing. “James fell asleep today in Transfiguration and Peter accidently turned his hair bright purple in Charms when he wasn’t paying attention. McGonagall and Flitwick weren’t impressed and they both have detention on Saturday night.”

Remus considered this for a few seconds. “That gives them three days to try pull as many pranks as they can since they will be in detention anyway.” he replied in mock thought.

“Not just them my dear Moony,” Sirius answered excitedly, “We are the Marauders after all! We do things together. So prepare yourself because I think James has an epic plan up his sleeve that he dying to tell us. He is just waiting for you to leave the hospital before he reveals what he terms ‘his master piece’.”

Remus laughed appreciatively at this and shifted his body position slightly so that he had moved closer to Sirius. He then laid his head on Sirius’s shoulder. “Tell James I’m looking forward to discovering what he deems ‘a master piece’. And thank you Sirius… For coming.”

Sirius responded to this by wrapping his arms around Remus and, to Poppy’s surprise, proceeded to plant soft kisses in Remus’s hair. 

The two stayed like that for a while, talking and laughing through the morning. Poppy observed them carefully. She noted the brightness in the youngsters’ eyes and saw how they looked at one another, with love and familiarity. She realised with a start that the two boys were not just good friends; they were lovers and had been for quite some time.

As the clock struck two o’clock, the boys were quieter and seemed to be enjoying the silence with each other for company. This was about the usual time that Sirius left the hospital. Poppy watched as the boys turned to face each other, still wrapped together closely.

“Thank you Padfoot,” Remus sighed contentedly before pulling Sirius on top of him whilst wrapping his arms around Sirius’s waist. The two shared a long, tender kiss before Sirius reluctantly pulled away.

“I have to get back to the Tower.” Sirius said and Poppy heard the sadness and longing in his voice. “But I’ll be back before you even wake up tomorrow and we can go to class together tomorrow. The first lesson is Herbology so it shouldn’t be too bad a start to the day.”

Remus nodded in agreement as Sirius gently untangled himself from Remus, careful not to knock any of the latter’s new cuts and bruises. After Sirius had climbed off the bed he turned to face his best friend. He leaned down to place one last soft kiss on Remus’s lips before he started to leave the hospital, carrying something that shimmered in the moonlight. As he got to the door Remus called out to him.

“Hey, Padfoot?”

“Yes Moony?” came Sirius’s reply as he turned to face Remus.

“I love you” said Remus, his face shining with happiness.

Sirius smiled, his own face mirroring Remus’s expression. “You know I love you too. See you tomorrow love.”

And with that Sirius disappeared beneath the thing he was carrying and Poppy watched as the hospital door opened and closed on its own for the second time that night. She glanced over at Remus one last time before turning in to see the boy still staring at the door, a small smile etched upon his face.

The next morning Poppy discovered that Sirius had kept his promise as she entered the hospital fairly early to check on Remus. Breakfast for the rest of the school hadn’t started yet and so Poppy was surprised to see Sirius there. Sirius was sitting in a chair beside the bed with his arms and head resting on the bed itself. He was holding one of Remus’s hands in his own and had evidently gone back to sleep. Remus looked up as Poppy entered the hospital and motioned to Sirius. 

Poppy could see that he didn’t want to be disturbed at the moment and so she smiled and nodded and began tidying up the hospital instead. She glanced back to Remus for the last time before returning to her office and saw that he had also closed his eyes with that same content smile from the night before written upon his peaceful face.

And Poppy knew, that for the rest of Remus’s life, Sirius would be there for him and they would take care of one another and that Remus would always have 

someone to love.

_Because after all,_ she thought to herself, _that’s all anybody ever really needs._


End file.
